Passengers welcome temporary bus shelters

Published: Friday, 29 January 2016

Temporary shelters at 20 GO GEORGE bus stops are currently being erected for the convenience of passengers while the planning and positioning of the permanent bus shelters are being finalised. “Of course we would have preferred to present our passengers with all these facilities from the first roll-out of the system,” says James Robb, GO GEORGE Manager, “but since all routes start out as trial routes while we monitor passenger needs and usage patterns, it would not be cost effective to put up expensive permanent shelters at stops, just to have to move it again a few months later, at huge cost, when we adjust the routes. However, finalisation of all the routes is taking a bit longer than initially expected, so we have decided to offer some temporary relief in the meantime.”

The first six of these temporary shelters had been erected in December last year, but passengers still complained about mud and water puddles under the shelters in those areas without concrete or paved sidewalks.

“We always consider feedback and adapt where possible, so we have now started filling these surfaces with gravel. Unfortunately, anything more permanent will be just too costly at a temporary structure,” says Robb.

Completion of the temporary shelters will take a few more weeks since a concrete base for each pole has to be casted and left for seven days before mounting the poles and roof.